What if this May update gave us a Romulan/Tal Shiar faction, with an FE or two's worth of storyline focusing on subterfuge. You complete this to level up to max quickly, using various ships on an as-needed basis (like the Doomsday Device renting you a Bird of Prey)

When you've levelled, this unlocks monster play & a Tal Shiar reputation. Play monster play (say, as a Scimitar against a group of Fed/KDF, similar to starbase alerts, except you're the lone, really powerful attacking force) to progress along the reputation grind, and get some passives, and when maxed, Romulan ships for PVE. To keep them 'rare', they're very costly in terms of dil/marks/time investment to both unlock and buy (yes, I know, PVPing to get PVE rewards.. ).

Like starbase upgrades, these are a big investment. They occupy a starbase upgrade slot, take ages and cost a tonne of dil to unlock and again to provision per player, can only be provisioned one at a time, and they can be used only in a particular category PVP match, 'Dreadnought vs Dreadnought' where teams duke it out for a big reward. Death in this match leads to an increasing respawn timer, like Elite STFs, until all of one team is dead. Imagine the slobberknockers between a Jupiter vs Bortasqu', Bortasqu' vs Scimitar, Scimitar vs Jupiter.. not to mention the other members of each team.

Teams could plan out group compositions/strategies built around their siege dreadnoughts, and then fight eachother in various premade types of fight:

(1) 'blind' 5v5, only knowing their own team build and approach before they enter
(2) 'eyes open' 5v5, where confident teams could enter a higher-payout match where both sides can analyse their opponent team's composition before the match begins
(3) 10v10 pitched fleet battles
(4) Dreadnought vs Starbase, where one team consists of the attacking siege dreadnought and attendant team, against the defending team of 5 and their starbase.
(5) even crazier things

The winning team of any of these gets a very healthy dil/fleet marks/purple loot payout and bragging rights, the losers getting a smaller consolation prize, as well as the losing dreadnought taking 1 week to be repaired (that player cannot fly their dreadnought again for 1 week), to put something on the line because the reward is significant.

Basically obtaining a siege dreadnought for/from your fleet gives you the opportunity to fight a daily (if you win) battle to fight for significant dil/fleet marks, and PVPers more to plan and scheme and destroy with.